


Origins of a Name

by Aphilaeus



Series: The Skywalker Saga [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Legends, Pre-Canon, Prophecies, Skywalker, Slavery, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-09-01 00:11:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20248951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aphilaeus/pseuds/Aphilaeus
Summary: A slave named Shmi encounters a strange woman on Tatooine, and is given a name.





	Origins of a Name

Today, she was being sent to a new master. Shmi had no safety for the past years, not since Master Pi-Lippa died. Pi-Lippa promised to free her, but she was dead now, and instead she was being sold between crueler and crueler masters. Oh, how she wished back for the time with her mother and father, travelling the Outer Rim - before the Zygerrians took them.

She couldn’t even remember their faces. How long had it been? More than twenty years - that was for sure. Little Anakin was all she had now, the only  _ real _ thing she could love. Her baby boy, a boy without a father, and a name that Shmi only barely remembered. A story, that her mother told her, while they were being transported to Zygerria, of a great warrior named Anakin who freed the slaves.

The stories of the man she’d heard after her son was born were far more graphic. The Anakin her mother had told her was a brutal man - he slaughtered the Hutt Council, burnt Zygerrian cities to the ground, in the name of revenge for his mother. Those stories need not be told to her Anakin.

« _ You are in service of Gardulla Besadii the Elder now, slave _ .» said the Kajain’sa’Nikto standing at the entrance to the Tatooinian palace. A  _ Hutt _ palace, much to her chagrin. Their Huttese dialect was different, accented in a way that the words were more drawn-out. The Nikto was not directly speaking to her, she and Anakin were two of many slaves being brought to the Hutt.

They were taken into a large, open room - where they were then ordered around by a Theelin, her pink hair designed like massive leaves coming out from her scalp. The same pinkish-red color were her spots, covering the right side of her neck and over her exposed shoulder.

Shmi was assigned to kitchen duty.  _ Good _ , she thought,  _ cooking is something I can do _ . Pi-Lippa had taught her that, she remembered fondly.

« _ And that little boy of yours, keep him out of sight. _ » the Theelin - Diva Funquita - who had said she was Gardulla’s majordomo, said. Shmi looked at her in confusion. « _ Little boys… Trust me on this one, slave. _ » Shmi nodded curtly, then moved in the direction of the kitchens. The smell of cooking meat and exotic spices filled her nostrils.

“You speak Basic, don’t you?” a raspy voice asked. Nearing the door to the kitchen, she ignored the voice and kept walking. “Lady, I mean you no harm.”

Finally, she turned around. There was a short alien staring at her. Orange skin, with large goggles over two brown eyes, deep in her head. “What do you want?” Shmi asked her, barely more than a whisper.

“My name is Maz Kanata. I come from Takodana - somewhere far from here.” She walked towards her. Anakin held on to her mother’s leg tightly. “I may not be able to free you, but I can sense that your little boy has a great destiny ahead of him. And you…  _ you _ will be a catalyst for him.”

_ Sense _ ? “Are you…”

“I am not a Jedi, no. But I can sense some things others may not. And your boy will one day fly among the clouds and walk the skies.” Maz Kanata paused. “Do you have a surname?”

“No…” she said, confused. The woman made eye contact with Anakin, and then she turned up to Shmi.

“Skywalker.” she said, “You are Skywalker.”

_ Anakin Skywalker _ , she said and looked at her boy. Perhaps he would be much like the Anakin of legend, but less…  _ gory _ .

Maz Kanata took Shmi Skywalker’s hand in hers, and smiled. “Do not forget what I have told you.”

Shmi didn’t think she would.


End file.
